Creating a Culture of Innovation

Recently I was very fortunate to hear Nick Donofrio speak about "Creating a Culture of Innovation" at Mount Saint Mary College in New York.

Nick Donofrio, the Executive Vice President- Innovation & Technology of IBM worldwide fame, emphasized how important it is to educate students to think creatively. His comment "Only a few will invent, but everyone can innovate" is an idea to reflect upon as educators.

In the global world students will face fierce competition in their career lifetimes. Innovative thinking need to be developed and nurtured in students in order to advance them in front of others who are unable to address concerns in new ways and problem-solve solutions to old problems. This is their ticket to the head of the class. Innovators find new solutions.

Using Discussion Forums in your classes is one method to develop critical thinking skills. Discussion Forums provide students an opportunity to delve deeper into the subject matter. Students have time to reflect and think. They are allowed time to read and learn more about a subject before they respond. Discussion Forums extend your class conversation beyond the 60-minute class time. Discussions can last as long as needed, as long as students want, as long as anyone has something to add to the topic. Conversations don't have to stop when the bell rings.

Using new communication technologies available today is another way to expose students to other ideas and nurture critical thinking skills. Communicating synchronously provides a perfect opportunity to bring experts to your classroom virtually, no need for travel.

Or invite an expert to participate in a discussion forum topic or field questions from students about a specific topic or idea. Bringing ideas from others through asynchronous tools provides an opportunity for students to hear others point of view and also extends student learning beyond the classroom walls.

Teaching today’s students requires a new way of looking at the way we teach. Innovative thinking is a developmental process. Educators can nurture critical thinking skills with innovative teaching strategies using new technologies. Creative Thinking Skills can be developed, they just need to be practiced.

Innovation - think about it.

Educause Podcasts

Subscribe to the Educause Podcasts and bring learning to you.

Keep updated in Education and Technology. Hear what experts, visionaries, and your peers have to say - anytime, anywhere.

Subscribe now !

Online Communication Tools

Two communication tools we are currently testing in conjunction with Elluminate Live are WiziQ and DimDim for use as online classrooms, faculty office hours and for student conferencing. We are doing our own comparison of how these tools match up for faculty teaching through blended and online delivery methods.

These tools are getting tested by our faculty as a means to reach students through new methods for virtual classes or for additional learning sessions to help students understand a new software or to understand a new concept. DimDim and WiziQ provide a free or very inexpensive alternative to the well know communication tools, Elluminate Live and Adobe Connect. There are many more on the web today.

In distance learning hearing the instructors voice connects the student with the teacher and allows instructors to verbalize instead of just using text-based chat. These virtual classrooms provide a white board for class use, a text chat window, and the opportunity to see the instructor via a web cam and to hear the instructor's voice among many other features. Using these tools for synchronous learning provides a unique learning experience for the student as well as the instructor.

Test them out yourself. You can find one to fit your budget. And be sure to tell us which ones you are using.

Conference: Blending With Purpose

Join the University of Illinois in downtown Chicago for this year’s workshop "Blending with Purpose" on April 6 through 8, 2008. "Blending with Purpose" examines blended learning as a platform for introducing teaching innovations,resolving resource concerns and facilitating the learning of students in the digital age.

Administrative leaders, faculty members, instructional designers and researchers will gather to network, consider effective practices and discuss assessment strategies. Break out sessions will center on three primary areas – administration, pedagogy and assessment/evaluation.

Register for this exclusive blended learning workshop, where multiple opportunities for learning, sharing and networking take place during the highly interactive workshop sessions.

Institutions are encouraged to register teams of administrative leaders, faculty members, instructional designers and researchers. Each track provides participants with strategies that can be adapted and implemented at their home institution.

Learn More: http://www.blendedworkshop.uic.edu

ManyVoices For Darfur Project

Learn more about the Many Voices for Darfur project. This is a great way to get your students involved in world events. This project was started by Mr. Mayo, a teacher from Rockville, Maryland.

Get Involved!

Related Resources

• Mr. Mayo Blog
• Flickr > tag > darfur
• Wikipedia > Darfur
• Yahoo! Teacher Document > Twitter Many Voices Project

The Horizon 2008 Report- Emerging Technologies for Teaching & Learning

You just might want to read The Horizon 2008 Report by the New Media Consortium and Educause on the key emerging technologies or practices that will impact higher education in the next 5 years.

The collaborative report from NMC and Educause draws on current research and identifies 6 technologies that are likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, and creative expression at learning institutions.

The six technologies are divided into adoption horizons :

• 1st Adoption Horizon- Grassroots Video & Collaborative Webs- found on most campuses
• Mid-term Horizons- Mobile Broadband and Data Mashups- beginning to appear at leading edge organizations
• Far-term Horizons- Collective Intelligence & Social Operating Systems- hints at academia use 4-5 years down the road
  

The report takes a close look at each of the 6 technologies, tells how it is being used and how it could be used, and tells why it is relevant to teaching and learning. An annotated list follows each technology description with links to tagged resources.

I think you will find the direction 'learning' technology will take over the next few years an interesting ride.

The Case for Open Access

Harvard has taken the lead to 'free' knowledge.

The Harvard Faculty of Arts & Sciences has proposed a new policy to support open-access of the scholarly articles written by the FAS faculty members.

Open Access would provide 'free' access to journal articles and publications to the world that would otherwise cost schools and individuals, sometimes outrageous prices, to read. Open Access to articles and publications would allow the social exchange of information without regard to money.

Hopefully Harvard's lead will inspire others to spread the wealth of information freely so everyone can learn.

Year of the Rat- Happy New Year

Even teachers in urban areas like New York have trouble sharing videos with their students due to lack bandwidth in their schools.

Finally I found a solution. Download Helper is a Firefox plugin that allows you to save videos to your computer from sites like YouTube to show in your classroom without having to wait for the video to download. Besides Download Helper all you need is a viewer or player, such as VLC, to play the video for your students right from your computer, no waiting- no more choppy videos.



Now students can watch videos such as Year of the Rat, then discuss topics such as empathy, compassion for others, or how another culture welcomes a New Year.

Thanks Manny for sharing this lifesaver application!